A New Journey
by wingedringwraith
Summary: The heartless have finally been defeated, and three friends reunited. Their worries are over at least or are they?
1. Prelude

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is not mine. As much as I would like to claim the credit for the characters in this story, they don't belong to me. THEY DON'T I TELL YOU!

Prelude

It was a perfect night. The path of the starlight was not hindered by even a wisp of cloud as it made its way down to the tiny island, reflecting off of the ocean around it to create the very image of perfection, and the air was stirred by a gentle breeze that came in off the water. Beneath the stars on the island a lad of about 17 sat with his back to the paupau tree, one hand holding a piece of the fruit that it bore. Sitting next to him, head resting gently on his shoulder, was a girl, about the same age, with short, fairly dark hair, her eyes retaining a look of perfect content that could never have been there before.

"Kairi." The boy spoke quietly, not wanting to disturb the moment.

"Yes Sora?"

Sora opened his perfect blue eyes slowly, glancing to the paupau fruit in his hand. "Share this with me?"

The words were simple, but the meaning they held for both of them was infinitely greater than most would imagine. The sharing of this simple fruit meant the joining of two lives: two destinies. It was an entwining of fates that could only be ended by one thing: death.

Kairi couldn't speak for a moment. She had dreamed of this moment for so long now that she wondered if this was not just another dream; but this was too real, and things were different now. With the heartless finally destroyed, they could live on the island without further worry and never be separated again. Still without uttering a word, she reached out for the piece of fruit he offered her, her surprise fading into happiness as the two of them ate their pieces together, and his free hand found hers and locked with it. When they had finished, she leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes.

"Thank you Sora." She spoke after several more moments of complete silence.

Sora didn't speak a word in reply, and she soon discovered the reason. His head was leaning back against the tree, his mouth open, and low beginnings of snores were emitting from his throat. Her first instinct was to smack him for ruining the moment, but before she could make the move he was jolted awake from another source.

"Sora, Kairi!" Another male figure, slightly older than Sora, ran across the moonlight beach toward them. The starlight glinted off his silver hair, giving it an almost metallic appearance in the limited light.

Kairi managed to hide her disappointment as Riku ran up to join them. "Hey guys. Hope I'm not interrupting."

They both shook their heads, though Sora was just awake and had no idea exactly what was going on.

"Great. You guys want to go out for a swim?" Riku was sporting a new pair of swim trunks. They consisted of a black flame pattern set on a navy blue background, with two red stripes running down each side.

Kairi blinked before getting up. "Um – sure. Let me change quick." She pulled Sora to his feet and both of them ran back toward the area where the few who lived on the island stayed in small huts, mostly in trees where they were far enough above the ground. After pausing for a moment to kiss quickly, they went into separate huts and soon reemerged. When they returned to the beach Kairi wore a jungle green, strapless bikini, and Sora had his bright red swim trunks. Riku was already far out in the water.

"Come on guys! What's taking so long?"

In seconds Sora was in the water, taking only a couple minutes to reach Riku with strong, practiced strokes; Kairi wasn't far behind.

"Can't catch me!" Sora took off in the lead, and was quickly followed by Riku and Kairi. There was a time when Riku could easily have caught up to Sora while swimming, but since the appearance of the heartless many things had changed. Now Sora was not only keeping pace easily, but gaining on the two behind him. Sora turned toward the area they had built a raft long ago, before the whole ordeal with the heartless, and continued, swimming just slow enough to keep the others chasing him. He was glad for his experience fighting the heartless in the ocean now, as it had taught him enough to out-swim anyone on the island.

It wasn't till several minutes later when they saw the dock to Destiny Island that the other two realized they had made a complete circle. Sora swam in to shore, followed first by Kairi, then Riku, and soon all three lay on the beach, exhausted.

"Man Sora, when did you learn to swim so well?" Riku was a bit miffed at no longer being best.

"Oh, you know – just had to practice a bit."

"Yeah? Well maybe I'll practice a little more! You'll have to work hard to stay ahead of me!" Riku had never been one to settle for second best, and now that Sora was no longer so much smaller than he was, he could no longer win against the younger boy as easily as before.

"You do that." Sora smiled lazily, he didn't care really, whether Riku did get better. If it came down to that, he could do some real work too instead of relying on his experiences in his fight against the heartless to pull him through everything.

The banter went on for a bit, Kairi managing to find her way over to Sora's side before the two boys finally stopped their back and forth razzing, and slowly all three began to drift off to sleep. Sora was the first to go, and Kairi, feeling the even rise and fall of his chest and hearing the light snores, knew he was out. Taking one of his hands in hers she whispered "I love you Sora" before slowly drifting off to sleep herself.

Riku, still awake and observing this from his part of the beach, though the words were too soft for him to hear, found himself unable to sleep. After a few minutes he got up and returned to the hut he was using for a home, soon finding the comfort of sleep inside.


	2. Chapter 1

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor any of the characters in the game.

Chapter 2

"Hey Riku, Sora! Come on!" Kairi stood outside the entrances to the adjacent tree huts where Sora and Riku slept, her own to the right of Sora's. Behind her the blinding rays of the sun fled in through the openings and seemed to head directly for the faces of the sleeping boys. Sora was the first to rise, waking up a little faster than Riku in the next hut.

"Come on sleepyheads! It's time to get up." Time had gone quickly since the heartless were defeated. Sora's mind quickly went back to the day the heartless had finally been banished from the world for good, or, more properly speaking, the night following. It seemed like his relationship with Kairi had been perfect at that time, and still was great. Now she was asking him to marry though, and he wasn't quite sure he was ready for the responsibility, even though his hormones told him he was.

Although Sora had been the first one to rise, Riku was the first to emerge from his dwelling place, rubbing his eyes still. "It's not like anything new ever happens here."

Kairi punched his shoulder lightly. "Yeah, yeah. Everything's new every day, even if we have seen all there is to see before."

Riku laughed and then Sora emerged sleepily, only to be knocked back in and onto the floor by a flying tackle-kiss as Kairi captured his lips with hers. After several moments the two broke apart.

"Wow, what a way to wake up!" Sora was grinning from ear to ear.

Riku looked bored. "Come on guys. Let's go have some fun!" He took off running, leaping down from the walkway that led up to the tree houses as soon as he could and running past the little pool at the bottom.

"I'm right behind you!" Sora took off after him immediately, racing to catch up.

"Hey, wait for me!" Kairi followed Sora as fast as she could, her legs pumping to try to keep up. She had a harder time keeping pace with the boys now that they were all a few years older.

Riku slowed up a little till Sora and Kairi passed him, his attention drawn by the secret area that had always been so much fun. For some reason he felt a desire to go back there again. He slowed a little more, and then yelled "Go on; I'll catch up!" before darting into the small cave.

Once inside he went to the place where the door had been, though it now seemed so long ago. His hands ran over the wall slowly. It was true that since the adventure he had come to view this place as more of a paradise than a prison, but deep within him a part of him, yet unvanquished, yearned for release. He leaned against the wall for a minute, almost wishing the door would appear again and invite him once more to the other worlds that had once been within his grasp.

"Ahhhh… good. You are back." Riku almost jumped back from the wall as he heard a disembodied voice echoing throughout the cavern.

"Who? Who are you?" The voice was familiar to him.

A deep chuckle followed the question, followed by the voice once again. "Don't you know me boy? Search your heart. A part of me still remains there."

"It… it can't be!" Riku fell to his knees, his hands on the sides of his head as though in pain. "How?"

An evil laugh followed that question, but again no answer was given. "Search your heart, child of darkness. You will find the answer there."

"Riku!" The voice vanished as Sora and Kairi appeared in the cave. "Come on slowpoke – what's taking so long?"

Riku got up quickly. "I was… remembering." He said this slowly before his face returned to its normal demeanor. He flashed Sora a mischievous grin before pointing to the wall where Sora and Kairi had carved their pictures long ago. "Come on. Let's go!" He jumped up and ran back out of the cave, following his previous course as he scaled the wall of rock that the water poured over into the little pool, the main island now in his sight.

"What was that about?" Kairi blinked at Sora.

Sora merely spread his arms out and shook his head helplessly. "It's Riku. Who knows?" He planted a quick kiss on her cheek and then ran out of the cave after Riku, Kairi following him closely.


End file.
